


One Turn at a Time

by DetectiveRoboRyan



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Baby dragons - Freeform, F/F, Fluff, Miscellaneous Headcanoning, Not necessarily THEIR baby dragons but baby dragons nonetheless, Say'ri is a weenie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-15
Updated: 2015-08-15
Packaged: 2018-04-14 19:32:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4577124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveRoboRyan/pseuds/DetectiveRoboRyan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Say'ri is afraid of creepy-crawlies like bugs and lizards, and yes, that does extend to baby dragons. Luckily, Tiki knows a way to help with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Turn at a Time

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER this is all from bullshitting around with cute-ish ideas about baby manaketes and my love of weird biology and shit I apologize
> 
> I guess the babies were like, given to them via magic? i mean i'm still not even sure if the baby dragons in here are even THEIRS like are they gonna raise these shits? who the hell knows man

There were four tiny winged lizards in a box next and Say’ri’s skin was crawling.  
  
“I know how you feel about reptiles, Say’ri, but they’re only babies! And I’m sure they’ll grow soon,” Tiki had tried to say when she showed off the four hatchlings in their little nest, and when Say’ri’s knees had given out from sheer panic. It felt horrible to be afraid of one’s own children, but they… they were… _lizards._  
  
It was a shameful truth, but Say’ri couldn’t stand reptiles. Or bugs, or gastropods, or most forms of sea life if it wasn’t smoked and cut up. Looking at pictures was fine, but being faced with them in real life made her want to hide behind a couch.  
  
Why hadn’t anyone told her baby manaketes looked so… reptilian?  
  
They looked reptilian, like baby versions of Tiki’s dragon form, with scales and wings and claws and everything, but they were so _small._ Tiki had told her they grew into a more humanoid form quickly, but they always hatched as tiny little dragons the size of Tiki’s palm. And they did strange dragon things like sneezing manakete breath and eating coins and hoarding balls of lint in their little cotton-fluff nest, things that Say’ri was assured were normal but that freaked her out nonetheless.  
  
“They’re so…” Say’ri tried to explain, watching one try to fly out of the nest on a gust of air, only to be caught in Tiki’s hands and deposited back in the soft material. “So very odd.”  
  
“In what way?” Tiki asked as another nipped at her green-tinged fingertips. Tiki kept her textured skin clean and her claws blunt and rounded for reasons Say’ri didn’t fully know, unlike the sharp but very tiny fangs and talons of the babies. “I know of your fear of reptiles, but I didn’t think it would extend to baby manaketes. You seem to like my scales an awful lot.”  
 Say’ri felt herself blushing. “Likely because they’re on you,” she guessed. “This is something different.”  
  
“Well, what did you think baby manaketes looked like?” Tiki asked. “I looked like this once, you know.”  
  
Say’ri wouldn’t admit she’d sort of always envisioned Tiki springing to existence fully-formed like some sort of mythological figure. “I pictured humanoid infants with scales in places like you, my lady,” she admitted.  
  
“Well, you’re not entirely wrong,” Tiki mused as one of the baby manaketes scampered up her arm and burrowed into her hair, which did not illicit a reaction. “They’ll grow into that quickly enough. They’re only dragons for the first year or so. Of course, they do get bigger than this before adopting a more humanoid form and learning how to transform and such. When they get about as old as Nah looks, that’s when physical aging slows. But I’m more concerned about the fact that you’re still afraid of them!”  
  
One of the babies squawked at Say’ri from the nest, wings stretching out. To her credit, Say’ri didn’t recoil, but she didn’t respond positively either.  
  
She swallowed. “I cannot understand my fear of reptiles either, my lady. I have tried to cure it many a time, but…”  
  
“You don’t _cure_ fear,” Tiki said calmly, picking up one of the baby manaketes in her hands. “You conquer it, one step at a time. It’s like Robin’s strategy games— you can’t defeat the enemy commander in one turn. You have to do a little bit, then step back and gather yourself, and do a little bit again, until the threat is gone.”  
  
Say’ri thought about that, her brow furrowing. It did make absolutely no sense for her to fear crawling things so much— what was there to be afraid of? She still couldn’t do much about the fact that she still _did,_ but it was something to know there was no true cause.  
  
“Alright, now, hold out your hands,” she heard Tiki instruct, which she did without thinking. Feeling a small weight being placed into her hands, Say’ri shut her eyes.  
  
“Is… there a baby manakete in my hands, my lady?” Say’ri ventured, feeling the weight shift and sniffle and gnaw on her fingers. It was strangely soft, and not as scaly or tough as she had expected— the scales hadn’t hardened to weapon-shattering toughness, and they were so small, it was like touching skin. With her eyes closed, it wasn’t so bad, though Say’ri could feel her heart rate increasing.  
  
“Yes, that’s Taiga,” Tiki replied. “You can open your eyes if you want. Her jaws aren’t strong enough to bite hard.”  
  
They had names? Maybe that was a Manakete thing. Say’ri hesitantly opened one eye, then the other, and then she was staring down at the tiny little baby dragon in her shaking hands.  
  
“If I dropped her right now she would likely die,” Say’ri whispered. “I am not ready for this.”  
  
Tiki scooted over and patted her arm. “You’re doing wonderfully,” she said assuredly. “It’s only the first turn. And it’s been an entire seven seconds!”  
  
Taiga trilled, opening her tiny jaws wide. A bead of sweat ran down Say’ri’s face as she sat and stared at the tiny dragon with rigid muscles and shaky hands. It was oddly adorable, seeing a tiny manakete and knowing it’d grow up to be just like Tiki (in some respects anyway) sniffing and gnawing on her fingertips curiously.   
  
“They look like you,” Say’ri found herself noting, looking from Taiga to the two in the box, to the fourth still nestled in Tiki’s hair. “They’re… beautiful.”  
  
She saw Tiki smile out of the corner of her eye. This was progress, clearly, but Say’ri was in no way ready to do anything more than exist as a platform for the baby dragons to explore.  
  
“It looks like this turn is over,” Tiki decided, noting Say’ri’s rigid posture, as she took the baby dragon from her wife’s hands. “Was that too bad?”  
  
Say’ri let out a wheeze, collapsing back onto the couch. “I feel like I just ran across a continent,” she breathed. “And you’re going to make me do that again?”  
  
“Only when you’ve got a strategy for the next turn,” Tiki assured her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “Don’t worry. It’ll get easier.”


End file.
